ACHP Episode 435 Robotaxi and Epstein Save Christmas

Episode Summary

Episode 435 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is the crew's last full show before Christmas 2025, with host Mike Palmer, Mike Stefanowicz and engineer Boo smoking the Crowned Heads Tennessee Waltz in a Robusto Gordo while working through a long stretch of off-beat news. The lead story is Waymo's San Francisco robotaxi fleet freezing in place during a widespread blackout that knocked out power to roughly 130,000 customers — with no working traffic signals, the cars entered a "safe freeze" mode and service was paused citywide, prompting a long table debate about whether autonomous vehicles are actually safer than human drivers (they compare Tesla Autopilot fatality counts to overall road deaths) and whether any of them would actually get in one.

From there the show covers how Hallmark went from 1910 Kansas City greeting cards to the Hallmark Channel Christmas movie machine (with a tangent on Rudolph, Woolworth and Kmart), the first batch of released Jeffrey Epstein documents and the redaction/phased-release controversy, the Jake Paul–Anthony Joshua fight and the crew's skepticism about Paul's reportedly broken jaw, plus riffs on Jack Doherty, Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan, and the DK Metcalf fan incident and how much fan-athlete engagement stadiums should allow. A recurring thread: how much of what people see on TikTok and social media is now AI-generated and fake.

Cigar news starts with Cigar Press naming Powstanie San Andrés Robusto the #6 cigar of the year — the guys give a heartfelt shout-out to Fred Rewey and Cigar Press, then take shots at Cigar Aficionado's Top 25 (including the Padrón 60th, which they say no customer has asked for) and announce plans to "rate the raters" before year's end. They also cover Fiero Tego's new Celebracione, a 7x50 Diadema Perfecto debuting for World Famous Cigar Bar's 30th anniversary in Fort Myers/Cape Coral, made at Quesada's Tabacalera de Porción/Tabadex factory in the Dominican Republic at $300 per box of 10, with Michael Herklots keeping the blend secret; Bocock Brothers adding a Syracuse Special Edition Corojo to its collegiate series ($290/20, Honduran Corojo wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, Honduran/Nicaraguan filler); and the Cuban Fonseca Du Nord, a 5.5x52 Robusto Extra regional edition for Canada arriving in plain packaging in early 2026, limited to 6,000 boxes of 10.

The episode closes with "What's the Score," where the crew guesses review scores for the CAO Arcana Thundersmoke redux (actual: 87, after an original 85) and a 2011 Charlie Minato review of the Pinar del Río 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Maduro Lancero (actual: 66).

In This Episode

1. 01
   Waymo Robotaxis Freeze in the San Francisco Blackout
   A citywide power outage knocked out traffic signals and left Waymo's autonomous cars stalled in safe-freeze mode, sparking a debate on whether self-driving tech is ready for real-world infrastructure failures.
2. 02
   Self-Driving Safety vs. Human Error
   The crew compares Tesla Autopilot-related fatality figures with overall U.S. traffic deaths and argues over who would actually ride in an unmanned car.
3. 03
   How Hallmark Became a Christmas Colossus
   From the Hall brothers' 1910 Kansas City greeting card business to the Hallmark Channel's non-stop Christmas movies, with detours through Rudolph, Woolworth and Kmart.
4. 04
   The First Batch of Epstein Files
   The DOJ's initial, heavily redacted document release and the fight over phased disclosure, plus the guys' take on accountability for politicians who don't deliver.
5. 05
   Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua and the Broken Jaw
   Whether Paul's loss and reported two-place jaw fracture were legit or scripted, the $93 million purses, and why everything on social media now looks fake.
6. 06
   Fan-Athlete Incidents and AI Fakery
   The DK Metcalf sideline confrontation, Mike Tyson and Hulk Hogan stories, and how AI-generated content is eroding trust in TikTok news.
7. 07
   Powstanie San Andrés Hits Cigar Press Top 10
   The Powstanie San Andrés Robusto lands at #6 on Cigar Press's cigars of the year, prompting thanks to Fred Rewey and a critique of Cigar Aficionado's Top 25.
8. 08
   Cigar News: Fiero Tego Celebracione, Bocock Syracuse, Fonseca Du Nord
   A secret-blend 7x50 Diadema Perfecto for World Famous Cigar Bar's 30th, Bocock Brothers' Syracuse collegiate Corojo, and Cuba's Fonseca Du Nord Canadian regional edition.
9. 09
   What's the Score
   Guessing review scores for the CAO Arcana Thundersmoke redux and a 2011 review of the Pinar del Río 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Maduro Lancero.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast Episode 435, it's December 23rd, 2025, I guess I should have read that in a different order, I'm Mike Palmer, the host of the show, and with our engineer, Boo, I like Turkey on Christmas Hippelhauser. We are here for the next 60 to 90 minutes bringing you all the news that's unfit for normal podcasting. It's almost Christmas. All right.

In today's show, RoboTaxi has a problem no one considered. How did Hallmark go from cards to Christmas movies? We have the Christmas movie everyone has wanted to see. And then in cigar news, Fiero Tego has a Celebratione.

Bocock is at it again. Finally, Fonseco Nordé is headed north in a season and he wants to score, but before we get started, on my left, as always, he's bigger than a bread box, but smaller than a silverback gorilla, Mike, I want to bring back lion dogs in 2026, Stepan Kiewicz. Lion dogs? Welcome, Mikey, to the show.

Thank you for having me, Mr. Palmer. Yes, lion dogs. What's a lion dog?

They're hot dogs. Hot dogs made out of lions. Yeah. Oh.

He did those for a good six, eight months. The Rock did it. The Rock did it. He called them Lion Dogs.

Oh, I don't know. I wasn't. I wasn't on that one. You don't know our Lord and Savior, Dwayne the Rock Johnson?

No, I know him. All right, Mikey, how do we get some of that CH Pod swag? By the way, I checked again. Still can't find the hat on the choices of things that we have.

Were you wearing your glasses? Interesting. Yes, there is no page two. It just scrolls indefinitely.

It's a you problem. Has anybody ordered it? Yeah, but now on YouTube, when we put up a thing, if he wears a shirt that we make, or I wear a shirt, or you do, well, they can't see you, that they make, we can tag it in the show, so people will look for it, yes. Oh, like on our body, we can tag it?

I don't know how it shows up, but I marked that when somebody wore it, and then I think it puts it at the bottom of the screen or something. Yeah, but you can put the image on it, it's pretty nice. com and check out our latest swag. com?

com. Like, there could be an A there. com. And go check out our latest swag.

Buy one, get the second one 40% off, spend $100 or more, and get free shipping. I'm gonna get the hoodies. I'm gonna have hoodies for you, don't worry. Is there hoodie orders out there?

No, the beanies, I mean. The beanies. Oh, the beanies, the beanies, yes. We want the beanies.

I'm gonna have the beanies. I'm gonna have beanies. I'm gonna have beanies for you. Perfect.

I promised Bucci you'd have one for Christmas. I still got time. I still have time. Tomorrow's the last day.

If he ships it to me. Yeah, if I ship it to you. And like and subscribe. Tomorrow's the last day we're all here.

Make sure you like and subscribe to our podcast. com. What are we smoking today, Michael? And we are smoking the Ba-Bam.

How's that? Bam! Twist a little? No, like...

No, the cigar. There you go. Too far. A little more, a little more.

There you go. Perfect. The Crown Heads Tennessee Waltz. It was under your a thumb.

A thumb? The Robusto Gordo, whatever size that's called. Robusto Gordo. Yes.

Very interesting stuff. All right. On with a news. A news.

RoboTaxi is a problem no one thought of. Waymo's RoboTaxi experiment hit a very real world speed bump this weekend in San Francisco. Can't wait to hear this. It wasn't traffic, it wasn't weather, or human error.

You guys want to guess what it was? It wasn't traffic, or human error? Correct. It wasn't traffic, weather, or human error.

Animals. Boots? Fire hydrant. It was the power going out.

Womp womp womp. A widespread blackout that began Saturday afternoon knocked out electricity The city for roughly 130,000 customers at its peak, and the ripple effects were felt well beyond homes and businesses. As traffic lights went dark across parts of the city, Waymo's autonomous vehicles suddenly found themselves in unfamiliar territory. What do we do when the lights don't work?

Shoot. Literally froze in place. Photos and videos quickly spread across social media showing Waymo cars stalled in traffic, unable to proceed once the stoplights went offline. They didn't know what to do.

They didn't know when to go. They didn't know when to go. Oh, because there's no red lights. No red, no green.

What do we do? We're just going to stop right here. We're just going to wait for them to come back on. Don't worry.

Without functioning signals to interpret, the vehicles reportedly entered a safe freeze mode, bringing rides to a halt and creating visible congestion. Waymo responded by retrieving its vehicles and pausing robo-taxi service across the city until Sunday. While the company framed the pause as a safety first decision, critics say the incident highlighted a larger issue with autonomous transportation. A researcher at the MIT Center for Transportation told CNBC that the failure during what he called the "entirely predictable power outage" raises serious questions about readiness.

Cities lose power, it happens, and any transportation system meant to scale has to be able to function or at least adapt to when infrastructure fails. This episode doesn't mean robotaxis are doomed, but it does underscore how dependent they still are on a perfectly functioning environment. Until autonomous systems can handle common urban disruptions, like blackouts, skeptics argue that they're not quite ready to replace human driven transportation. Ooh, so, we need an apocalyptic mode for the, uh...

Apparently, yeah, something, something like that, right? Right. Zombie apocalypse? I mean, so, obviously they have a camera that reads the light, or, or is it like the fire trucks, they have a sensor where they can, I know they can't turn the light, but, I mean, do they visually see it?

Like a camera? It's like a camera? Yeah, like the car does have a camera where they visually see the light is red and they stop. Probably.

Or it emits like a signal. Probably sees it. Huh. So you would think they got a, yeah, some type of apocalyptic setting where they can tell.

Apocalyptic. Say it! Nope. Where they can tell if the lights red, green are not on.

Right. Or yellow. It's gotta be more than that. I mean, okay, if the light was green anyways, but a car from the left or the right, you know, ran the red light.

Multiple cameras? Yeah, there'd be multiple cameras, right? Well, there's a thing on the top, I guess. Yeah, so wouldn't the car register and go, it's not smart enough to go, oh, there's no light here, I'll just treat it as a four-way stop?

Apparently not. Well, it's one of those logic problems where it says light red, stop, light green, go. There's not like no light on. No light, don't know.

I don't know, no light, I see it, I don't. Right, yellow, hurry up, go faster. Speed up through it. Maybe this guy's not from America that created it.

Who was it? Who was it? Yeah. Well, the lights are the same in every country.

Yeah. At least the ones I've been in. Like in China, there's still red, green, and yellow. They mean the same thing?

They just don't pay attention to them. But red means go? Yeah, but red means go. Yellow means stop.

Yellow means stop. Green means slow down. Green means slow down. It's about to turn to red.

Yeah. Okay. That's good. So, would you get in one of these cars?

No. Yeah, I would. It would be fun. No way.

Sure. Why not? There's not a lot of crashing. Well, it's the testing phase, first of all.

There's a lot of crashing going on. It doesn't sound like fun. Well, it sounds like as fun as the cars in Super Mario Brothers, remember the ones where their power is by a coat hanger that touches the top power things? That's almost what they're at now.

Right. Would you get in one of these things? No. What if they gave you like a pack of Oreos at the end of the ride?

No. And a Reese's Cup. What about some Reese's Cups? And they gave you your own Quidado sign?

No. What if they gave you a Quidado sign? No. When you got out there was Quidado, you could just lay in the road.

What if it was the tour for Alcatraz, New York? New York? No. You had to get in this.

No? " For your safety, I must keep you in this vehicle. I guess I'm fucked. Why wouldn't you get in?

What's your afraid is going to happen? It's not going to take you to where you want to go? No. Why?

Okay. First of all, have you seen one of these? Yes. In real life?

Yeah. Yes, I have passed one on the highway, because they're here in Orlando, too. They are. No, I would never get in one, Palmer, why would you get in a car, first of all, it's unmanned, right, because we've seen how well Tesla's been doing with those, right, people get in accidents, or all of a sudden this thing speeds off at 120 miles per hour, gets pulled over by a cop, or burns up with a battery, or whatever, I'm not getting in anything that I can't control.

That you can't control? Do you get on airplanes? Sometimes, unwillingly. Well, I wasn't even going to go that far until you said that I can't control.

How about the monorail at Disney World? Do you ride that? No, I do not go to Disney World. You've never been to Disney World?

Well, as a child. Did you ride the monorail? I think so. Don't you have to ride the monorail?

Yeah, well, it's not controlled by a person. That or the ferry? Yeah, but that was when I was a child. So now you would not.

So, what you're saying is the automation from 20 years ago is more sufficient than the current automation that we're doing? I feel like Disney is way further along than, you know, whoever this guy is from Russia or Czechoslovakia. When you go to Disney, are you afraid of the Wheel of Progress? The GE, right?

It's a big, beautiful, long road, where they sing the same song at the end of each year as it spins? The People Mover? No, no, the GE show. It's Carousel of Progress.

Is it still there? - I don't even know. I think so. It's very popular.

- I don't know what that is. - It's of that song. Everybody loves the song. How about the People Mover?

Do you ride that? 'Cause you're not in, I'm trying to go, trying to figure out how big, what's the scale? - Yeah, I mean, I do the People Mover. - Okay, what about a ride at Disney?

Just any ride, the, uh, anything? - If I, if, yeah, if I was to go, yeah, why would I? - It's automated. - It's automated?

You're not in control? - Yeah, I guess. - You're not in control. I got news for you.

You're not in control at all, for any of it. I would never ride on one of these things. Oh man, we should film. Do you let your wife drive when you guys go out?

Yeah, so I could sleep, but I trust her. I kind of trust a robot computer too, so. No way. It stopped.

We're just all going to run the red lights now. Would you ride in one, Palmer? Me? Sure, I would.

Mikey, would you ride in one? Pull it out on back. I'll get in it now. We'll tape it for the show.

I wouldn't mind one of the automated Teslas so that I don't have to drive at all. Really? That would be so nice. I'd have to figure out, like, what I would do, though, is I would get, like, some kind of sunglasses with the eyeballs, so that it thinks that I'm awake, and then I would just kind of- You think it's watching you?

And then I would take my hands on the steering wheel so I could take a nap as it takes me to work. Like the slinky eyeballs. Well, but if you take your hands on, what if you fall asleep this way? Yeah.

You're just going in right turn. I would just prop myself up. Right turn. Yeah.

That sounds amazing. It does. Do you have a Roomba at your house? One of those robot vacuums?

Yeah. Are you scared of it? No. I'm just curious.

I'm not getting in it and writing it. Well, you could write on it. No, I could not write on it. Well, I'm just trying to figure out the level of fear with the automation here.

Yeah. So, it's something you have to get into. What? No, I don't want to get into a vehicle.

I mean, look at what just happened. This thing... What just happened? And they all stopped.

This robot was so out of tune that it couldn't treat a out-of-power city as four-way stops, as like what happens when it comes to a stop sign or what happens when it comes. Stop sign that knows what to do with a stop sign. Or the safety features on this thing are so good that when the light does not function, it knows to stop so that there are no crashes. Because people that drive can't get through red lights that don't work without crashing.

What happens if somebody steals all the stop signs in the city? I don't know. What happens if while you're driving, all your tires blow up at the same time? Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly.

That's as far-fetched. Robots just wouldn't know. Not like a big market for stop signs, I don't think. You never stole a stop sign when you were a kid?

Nope. Not everyone in the city. Really? Mikey, did you ever steal a stop sign when you were a kid?

Yeah, of course. Exactly. Just for the record, with your whole Tesla's out here just, you know, running these evil streets and people are going nuts. People are dying everywhere.

As of October 2025, there have been hundreds of non-fatal incidents involving versions of autopilot, And 65 reported fatalities, 54 of which NHTSA investigations or expert testimony later verified and verified and two that NHTSA's office and defect investigations determined as happening during the engagement of full dot dot dot probably full automation. So 60 since October of this year? Yeah. So nobody 65 people have died in a yeah, that's a ridiculously no number.

How many people have died in auto How many auto accidents since October? How many auto, fatal auto accidents? That's because they weren't wearing slinky eyes. That's right, you gotta wear slinky eyes.

Yeah, how much higher is the human error auto accident? Around 3,750 deaths. Oh, that's a lot more. That's a lot more.

Sounds like those automated cars are pretty safe to me. Seems like Tesla's doing something right. You're like, oh, I don't have them Tesla. Yeah, but how many people have Teslas?

Are you kidding me? Fred Rui has one. It's like one out of every three cars at this point on the road, at least down here. One out of every three?

Yeah, it's the same. Yeah, it's one in three. None of us have one. Fred does, he's the one in the four of us.

Fred's not in the room. Fred walked away. It's one in four. Not three, sorry.

You read it wrong. One in four. And Greg, with all his cars, I mean, he can't find a broke Tesla, so he doesn't have one. So, he doesn't have one.

He'll find a broke one. Greg was talking to my friend Sean about his Porsche, and I go, Greg's a real car guy. He likes to buy broken cars. I said, he's got this, this, and this, and I think three of them are in the shop right now.

This one's busted. The one that you drive is busted. Oh, you know, what's funny is somebody left like a note on mine, like, hey, call me. And it said, Daniel and his phone number.

Yeah. And so, I sent a picture of Greg. I was like, does it look like somebody hit? Is there a new dent somewhere?

Is this a fresh dent? And he sent me back the shrugged emoji. He's like, I don't know. I'm like, all right.

All right, I'm not dealing with this guy. Maybe you hit his car. You got to do a walk around Greg's car every day. Oh yeah.

And log the marks and dinks. Yeah. Okay. Next story.

All right. How Hallmark became a Christmas Colossus. It's the It's hard to know what's more unlikely about Hallmark's Rise, the two brothers selling greeting cards will one day run of America's most watched TV networks, or that their brand would become synonymous with non-stop Christmas movies. The story starts in 1910 in Kansas City where Joyce and Raleigh Hall, son of Methodist minister, began selling greeting cards.

Their simple message of connection struck a nerve, especially when World War I servicemen and their families. Over the years, Hallmark didn't just grow, it helped define American gift-giving, Inventing modern wrapping paper and partnering with icons like Disney and Norman Rockwell. In 1951, Hallmark took a gamble on television. " It soon sponsored the world's first open-written opera written specifically for TV.

Decades later, Hallmark launched its own entertainment division, acquired a struggling cable channel, and in 2001 rebranded it as the Hallmark Channel. Thanks, Joyce. Son of whoever. Joyce.

Boom. Did you know that the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was actually started by Woolworths? By who? Woolworths.

It was like Kmart back in the day. Oh, yeah? Yeah, they invented Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. No way.

Yes. Why? How they invented it. To sell something they were trying to sell Rudolph toys.

And then it has just become part of the American Christmas tradition now. Really? How old is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer song? From the 1940s, I believe.

I heard he had a very shiny nose. Well, only if you ever saw it. I've never heard of Woldrock. You'd say it really close.

Yeah. Where's that company? Yeah, Woldwurst & Wolco went out of business a long time ago. S.

Kresge Company, later turned into the Kmart Company. Oh, yeah? How old are you? S.

Kresge and then worked for Camden, and then retired from the Kmart Corporation International Headquarters in Troy, Michigan. And that's when it all went downhill. Yeah. He left.

He left because it went downhill. They brought in Lee Iacocca from a car industry to run a retail organization and he didn't know what he was doing. Mmm. Damn.

So your dad owned Kmart? No, he didn't own it. Your dad's last name was Kmart? Middle.

Yeah? Middle name. Last name, Blue Light, middle name Kmart. Well, that was his nickname, Blue Light.

Blue Light? Yes. We call him Blue Light. We call him Blue Light.

Okay, so I don't even know what the story was about, to be honest. I don't know what we were just talking about. Because you were sleeping, and Joyce created Hallmark. I found it curious how Hallmark greeting cards became Hallmark television, and now they make all the Christmas movies and have their own network.

When you buy cards, do you buy Hallmark? No, I usually buy whatever's cheapest, because cards are sort of a throwaway thing anymore. 25. I'm more of a convenient guy, I go for Publix, whatever's at Publix.

There's definitely Hallmark at Public. There, yes, definitely Hallmark at Public. Oh. Okay.

I just didn't know if you guys, like, do the look at the back of the card thing, or...? No, I don't look and see who it was made by. If it has a nice message and it only cost me a dollar, I'm good. Generally speaking, my wife gives me the card and says, "You need to sign this," and then I sign it.

Yeah, I usually only have to buy cards for my wife. Yeah. Oh, you buy cards for your wife? It depends on what I'm giving her sometimes, yeah.

Write a nice little message on the inside. No, you're just a terrible husband, is what it is. Oh, is that what it is? I got the little ones, so she likes to make cards.

Do you ever buy her flowers? Those are from you, those are from her. Do you ever buy your wife flowers? Flowers?

Yeah. Sometimes. But she doesn't really like flowers. I do get those at Publix.

Okay. How often do you buy your wife flowers? She doesn't really like flowers. She doesn't really like purses.

She doesn't really like shoes. Perfect. She doesn't really like people. He's married a man.

Yeah. He's married a man. Oh. Do you call him Ginger?

No. Yeah. And he was quite frantic looking for you on Friday night. Where is he?

Well, he had a hat on, it threw him off. Oh, I did have a hat on. And then he put the hat on backwards, threw him off the second time. A hat on the Warbear blacked out hat.

Nice. com. Right. We still have some left?

Just a couple. All right, the new Christmas movie everyone wants to watch, How Epstein Lost Christmas. Chapter one has been released. How Epstein?

Yes. Is this really a thing? The Justice Department has released the first major batch of documents tied to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following a new law passed by Congress last month that mandates public disclosure of all related files within 30 days. So the list that doesn't exist, we now have chapter one.

We found the list. The release includes tens of thousands of pages of material, much of it long sought by longmakers, journalists, and the public. Among the newly released documents are photographs and records referencing high profile individuals, Including former President Bill Clinton. Oh, like we didn't know he was on there, yeah.

There's a painting of the guy. Yeah. I don't know, I'm just reading the story. There's a statue of Bill in front of the island.

Oh. With a small child standing beside him? Oh, man. Like one of those Greek statues.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Maybe it's Monica. Maybe.

According to multiple news outlets revealing the files, former President Donald, I guess he would be President Donald Trump. When did you say former? The story cannot guess it. Well, he is a former and a current.

Right. Hmm. I guess, I guess you got a point there. Former and current.

Appears only minimally in the materials. Minimally. Just a little bit. How many times is minimally in a 10,000 page list?

Twice. Chapter one. Twice. They said many of the documents remain heavily redacted.

Limiting how much new information can be drawn from the initial release, the Justice Department acknowledged that the sheer volume of records made it impossible to process It's everything within the 30-day window required by law. As a result, officials say additional documents will be released in phases over the next coming weeks. That explanation hasn't satisfied everyone. Several Democratic lawmakers have criticized the delay, arguing that the law does not allow for staggered disclosures and that withholding unredacted or unreleased files may violate the statute passed by Congress.

The Department of Justice, for its part, maintains that it is balancing transparency with legal obligations, It's involving privacy, ongoing reviews, and the protection of sensitive information and things we don't want the public to know. For now, the Epstein files are finally beginning to see daylight, but the full picture is still far from complete. And the political and legal fallout is only just getting started. We've only just begun.

So, let's get this straight. On Tuesday through Thursday, everybody was at Epstein Island. And then Friday and Saturday and Sunday, everybody was at the freak offs. Because Diddy, remember, Diddy was having all these parties, everybody was at the Diddy parties.

Well, he worked Diddy into the show, look at that. There it is. There it is. That's a standard move.

21 minutes in and a Diddy Diddy. I can't help it. Can't help it, I'm fascinated with the Diddy party. I just don't want to go to one.

I just think it's crazy that, you know, first of all, these guys who are billionaires, billionaires, trillionaires, all found a lot of time to go to these parties every week. You think they're busy? They have billions and trillions. What else are they going to do?

They have people. They have peoples to do all the work. We're busy. I mean, I know we're not super rich.

I'm not billion and trillionaires, but I don't have time to go to Epstein Island or to Diddy's Biddy thing, whatever. Right. I think that Boots has time to go to Diddy's Biddy's thing. I think that's what the problem is, he's upset he never got to go.

Yeah. " You know, his first year, none of us were invited to any type of Christmas party. Maybe that was the Biddy Diddy. I was invited to John Carney's Christmas party.

No, not John Carney. His Christmas party. Oh, that's right. We weren't invited.

We weren't invited. So maybe you did a Diddy thing. Yeah, that's true. We weren't invited.

Well, I don't get invited anymore, which is fine. You're never invited. But you didn't get invited. No, I also did not get an invite.

I mean, we aren't employees. I'm off the list. I understand there are cutbacks. I'm off the list.

Welcome to my island. Yeah, I at least want the invite so I can say I can't go. Yeah, he just likes to get invited. He never goes to anything.

He's safe to invite. It was a safe gamble to invite me. You know? I would've opted out.

I invited him to my circumcision just because I knew he wouldn't come. I'm sure it was busy. I'm sure, yeah. You just now had a circumcision?

I like to get it redone every once while it grows back. A little trimming. Oh. A little trim there.

You're Jewish. No. I don't celebrate Hanukkah. I don't smoke Hanukkah cigars.

That was last week. Kosher. Kosher. Kosher cigar.

Yeah, look at the lights in the background. They're green and red, buddy. He's a Christmas guy. Not blue and white.

He's a Christmas guy. Okay, moving on. So we're not, I guess there's really nothing to talk about other than Bill Clinton had pictures and Trump was there maybe once or twice. It was, it was just redacted and all that.

I mean, I saw this video today of this video that was released of Epstein's Island. Of the Diddy Party episode 4. No, no, no. At Epstein's Island.

There was like these two little girls running around inside, they said it was inside a place at the island, but how do you really know? How little are we talking little? They were probably like six. I mean, they were little girls.

Look, it's hard to say at that point what that was, I mean, somebody could have brought their kids, yeah, it could have been Christmas on Epstein Island, I'm sure every party wasn't the baby oiled and lotioned, right, hard to say, I mean, it is a whole island, yeah, maybe there's an island of misfit toy section or something, misfit toys, I don't know, I don't know, all I know is that you're never gonna get the truth, so, right, we're never gonna know everything, yeah, he's dead, just enough. I think that there should be some... He might not even really be dead. I think that there should be some type of punishment for politicians when they promise that they're going to do something and they don't do it.

Right. And it should be like something really embarrassing. Oh, like... You know...

Being spanked. Yeah. Like spanked in public or something. Right.

Yeah. It's embarrassing. And you want to know who I think should run it? Who?

The guy from Jackass. What was his name? Oh, Johnny Knoxville. Yes.

Is he still around? Man, could you imagine the hand that he makes? Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville, this is Marco Rubio, and this is Jackass. That would be funny.

Actually, Rubio wasn't the guy who did it, but, you know, it's just an example. Just a name he came up with. Or maybe he didn't. I actually like Rubio, he's a Padrón guy.

He was in last week's news. Oh, he's the one that wants the font change. Hi, I'm Cash Patel. Right.

Cash Patel. So it's just this huge hand on this fucking crane that just comes out and just smacks the shit out of him from behind him. Yeah, Trump's talking about all this stuff about like he's doing these games and all this other stuff. He's like, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna start holding politicians accountable. And the new rule is that if they say they're gonna do something and they don't do it within a timely fashion, 90 to 120 days. Johnny gets a hold of them. They get the large hand on public television.

I think it ain't that deal of Paramount Plus. Right, or Netflix. You take that deal, I'll take that deal. That'd be amazing.

I'm like, ooh, who's gonna get spanked today? Who's getting spanked this week? That'd be a great show. Well, Johnny, come on in!

Okay, so there you go. All right, love him or hate him, Jake Paul keeps doing the one thing that matters in boxing, getting people to watch. Or paid. The latest Jake Paul fight wasn't just another influencer sideshow, it was a reminder that the sport has changed.

Whether purists like it or not, Paul stepped into the ring once again with the same formula he's perfected. Massive promotion, relentless trash talk, and a clear understanding of how to turn boxing into a modern entertainment event. From the opening bell, ding, it was obvious Jake Paul came in prepared. He wasn't reckless, he wasn't swinging wildly for a viral knockout, he was patient, calculated, and disciplined.

That's the part critics still struggle to accept. Struggle? Snuggle. Snuggle to accept.

You don't have to like Jake Paul, but at this point, you do have to acknowledge that he trains like a real fighter and takes the craft seriously. The fight itself had moments of tension, momentum shifts, and just enough drama to keep casual fans locked in. Was it a technical masterpiece? Masterpiece?

No, but it didn't need to be. Can I speak? It was competitive, it was physical, and it delivered exactly what the audience turned in for. What Jake Paul continues to prove is that boxing doesn't live and die on belts anymore.

It lives on attention. He brings younger viewers to the sports... You didn't even cover the article. What is this?

Huh? This isn't the story. Well, it depends on which story you wanted. He lost.

Okay. We want the scripted story. He got knocked down. Okay.

How are you not talking about that? You wouldn't cover the story because you gave it to me 10 minutes ago. And? And this is the first one I found.

Oh my God. And nobody pre-readed it. Oh my God. No, nobody pre-readed it.

I had 10 minutes. So, no, you didn't. Yes, I did. You had over an hour ago.

Now, we've been doing the show for 30 minutes. You had 30 minutes. No. Yes.

No. Yes. All right, so this just in. Jake Paul lost and got his jaw broke.

Yes. He got his jaw broken. And... And I didn't watch, just for the record.

I haven't watched. You didn't watch it? No. I watched the end.

I don't watch. After I left here, went home, turned on Netflix really quickly, And watched Anthony Joshua smile as he reared back, and then break Jake Paul's job. Did you think Jake Paul knew it was coming? I don't know.

Supposedly, Jake Paul says that was not in the script for him to lose. Now... There's a script? Of course there's a script, but have you seen some of these fights?

No, I don't watch these fights. Definitely a script. Now, the thing is, I don't think it was definitely in the script for him to get a broken jaw in two spots. Now, the x-ray looks a little fake.

Yeah, it didn't look that serious of a shot. No. I mean, and he was talking like, I mean, I've never broken a bone in my body, but I'm pretty sure if your jaw's broken in two spots, one, I don't think you're talking, and number two, I think you're going to be in a lot of pain. But that's how I feel.

Yeah. I don't care how much adrenaline is rushing through. Correct. So, maybe it was fake.

But who knows? Huh. I know there was a lot of money thrown on Jake Paul. Even Drake.

Drake threw like, what, $225,000? For Jake Paul to win? Yeah. Yeah, because he's always...

He always wins. So this was the one. So like, this was... Yeah, this was the one.

So you think that this was the big one where everybody bet on him to win. right because we've been you know tricked yeah the past three times that's an interesting take that's an interesting take you know you saw the hit and when you look at it you it's not like he tries to block it he just looks at it like it's coming right and just takes it i don't i don't know anybody in their right mind that would just be like okay i'm gonna get hit here he stood in I mean, dude, get out of the corner. Right. So you think that it's possible that it was set up that way?

Maybe. I just feel like the jaw being broken in two spots... Right. I've never seen anybody's jaw broken in boxing, I don't think.

Really? Yeah, like, actual broken. Like, I've seen guys that, you know, have gotten smacked in the chin, you know, their glass chin, and, you know... Glass jaw.

They're hurt. And if the term glass jaw. Yeah. How do you guys know it's broken?

Because they reported it broken? Yeah. Well, it's not really broken. Well, that's what we're saying.

Yeah. And like they showed like an x-ray. Like they put up his x-ray. Oh, you can't pick those.

But it looks like, like I've had plenty of x-rays. Like that doesn't look like an x-ray. Well, I mean, they could easily, I could draw you an AI broken jaw x-ray. Yeah.

No. So you think this is the end of the boxing thing? No. He's going to do more?

Yeah. He says that he's done for a while after his jaw's hurting. Right. Now, if it wasn't scripted and he really got his jaw broke, I mean, hey, serves you right for fucking setting us all up before that.

How funny would it be if this guy just said, yeah, you know what, bam. But it just, when you look at the footage, it looked like, it looked, you know, I didn't watch the fight, I just caught the end of it. It looked like he was tired and it looked like he just wanted to be done. So, he just dropped your hands a little bit.

Stick your jaw out. " You know? Anthony Joshua was working him. Was he?

Oh, yeah. Maybe he's only supposed to hit him hard enough to knock him out, but not to break his jaw. " Special delivery. And what's great is Anthony Joshua didn't say anything after the fight.

He left the ring. " And Anthony, I guess he's gone. Wait, he was talking to the guy after the guy who broke his jaw was being interviewed after the match? Yeah.

What the fuck was he moving his mouth? Well, maybe he can't, maybe Anthony Joshua can't cover being like the dishonest part of the spectacle. Maybe, maybe he's like, he can't, like, dude, I can't stick with the storyline. I gotta go.

Like, I'm just leaving. Your jaw's broken two places. You're not talking. You don't think so?

No, they wire your mouth shut and then you can't talk. Yeah. Yeah, like... I mean, your jaw's hanging there if it's broken, like, here and here.

Well, he hit me in debate, and now I'm a good dog. " Yeah, he was definitely, like, you could hear him talk. Yeah, then it was broken. It wasn't broken.

Maybe it's fractured and they're going broke, but still, even that, it would hurt like crazy. Yeah. To open and close your mouth? Right, that's what I thought.

" What was the payout? How much money did he make? 93 million each. How much?

93 million each. And he got that 93 million, even though he knocked him out? Yep. 93 million dollars?

Yep. What, do you guys want to break my jaw for 93 million dollars? Hell yeah. Yeah.

You pay me 93 million, then you can pop me in the mouth. What do I get? I want 93 too. Well, apparently they both got paid.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. We're doing this all wrong.

Apparently, we should be fighting every good day. We should definitely do like a, like, remember like celebrity death match? Yeah. But it doesn't really be a death match.

It should be celebrity boxing with cigars. Oh no, it should be death match. Like cigar celebrities? Yeah.

Like Steve Saka? Eh, that's not fair. No, that's like, what's the, what was the guys? Steve Saka?

Steve Saka and Coop. What was the, what was, what was the guy's name in, uh, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out? Oh, um. Where you hit him and he loses pants?

He loses his pants? I don't know. I know who you're talking about. King Hippo?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who's losing their pants?

Coop? Are they white or are they tan? Are they white or tan or are they at a white party? Well, they're obviously not white.

He doesn't have white hair. Oh, sorry, he doesn't have white pants. He's khaki only. Right.

Plenty of white shirts. All right, moving on. We still got normal media stuff to go through here. Okay, well, I have a Jack Doherty story, but I don't know if it's right now either, but he's not a trained fighter, and these aren't controlled environments like influence or boxing offense.

Real fights don't come with referees, gloves, or contracts. And the risk isn't just embarrassment, it's seriously or legal trouble. At some point, the audience fatigue sets in, when once felt edgy, now feels repetitive. Another argument, another shove, another clip, another chasing variety.

Maybe there was a lot more information, but it was background-like on the other one, so you probably weren't gonna like it. That's all you got? The internet will always move, it always does, but if Doherty keeps finding himself in these situations, the consequences won't. Because eventually, the fight won't be for views, it won't end, and the camera won't stop rolling.

So Jack Doherty finds himself in a fight. Not him. He wasn't directly there. Well, he was there, but he wasn't directly involved originally from what I saw from the footage.

But, like, his squad was with this UFC, former UFC heavyweight guy. Did you see this? Who is Jack Doherty? See?

He's the guy who crashes his McLaren. He's this YouTube guy. Oh, I think we talked about this before. We've talked about him all the time.

We've talked about him all the time. Mikey's enamored with him. This is like the third story. And now his group got in a fight and he ran.

Part of the video I saw, I saw him going, the microphone's flopping around on his jacket. Yeah, he wasn't really involved. But this is an ongoing issue. So if you watch it, though, it doesn't look like, I don't know, man.

The more stuff I see on social media, the more I think it's all fake. It looks fake? I mean, I saw some of the frantic throwing around and stuff, and it's mostly bad angles, running people with cameras. This guy is a former heavyweight champion, and if he's going up against dudes that are half his size, I feel like everybody's going to bed.

Like, he's just knocking dudes out. Right. There's just no way that there's some kind of reckless flailing and all this other stuff that I saw in that fight. Aren't guys at his level or with his turn, aren't they more reserved because they could get in a lot of trouble if they actually hurt somebody?

Have you ever met Rampage Jackson? Have you ever seen any of the Rampage Jacksons videos? Oh, yes. That guy's not reserved at all.

Well, I'm sure there's the odd guy that's not. Yeah. But, I mean, somebody like Mike Tyson's not going to just haul off and punch somebody because he's going to kill them and then he's going to jail. Did you ever see the interview with Mike Tyson when he was up in Canada, when the guy called him a felon or whatever?

I was Canadian. There's no laws up there. " Oh, right. " And you could tell this guy was like, oh man, you know, he was trying to egg him on, trying to get him to throw a punch.

No, no, no. You know, like, like the problem with, with media is people will purposely say something to an individual to get a rise at them because they think that, because they think that they're safe. It's just like TikTok and all these other things where these people make these comments because they can hide behind a whatever. Right, right.

Um, so this guy made a comment and he said something in regards to the fact that, you know, like he was a convicted, Like, Felon, or whatever the case may be, should you be seen with the mayor or something like that? And Mike did not like that. And Mike, rightfully so, should not have liked that. Let me tell you something.

I'm gonna punch you. And when he started to say some stuff, you could tell the guy, I was like, uh-oh. Right. Like, hey, guess what?

Dyson started to get wound up. Yeah, like, guess what, dude? Like, one of the greatest fighters of all time is about five feet away from you, and you just directly insulted him. If you don't have, you know, you need to get out of there.

One of the most vicious fighters. You need to have somebody swoop in, because I got news for you, if he decides to go forward, no one's going to calm him down. Right. No, yeah, no, they're not pulling him off.

Yeah, and not only that, but like, if I was in the room, I'd be like, yeah, he deserved it. I don't, you know, like, I'm just, like, absolutely. Hit him one time, Mike, and then we'll just call it even. Yeah, no, like, go ahead, just, yeah, absolutely, just, you know, because I think there's too many people that speak, and they get away with this stuff.

Right. Like, have a little bit of decency, have some respect. But what we would like to see, though, is we would like to see somebody get injured when they make these stupid acts, because that's why we love Jackass so much. Like, Jackass was definitely a show where people did stupid stuff, and then there was a retaliation, and they would get injured.

Yeah, but that's like, well, that's like friends messing with each other. Yeah, well, I'm just going off earlier what you said. Yeah, shooting each other with a nail gun, or you get stapled in the ass or something. Yeah, doing something really dumb, right?

But I was just going off what you said, everything looks fake now. Yeah, that's true. Jackass has the injuries to prove that that was not fake. Right.

There's a video from back in the 80s, I think it was, where somebody mouths off to Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan open-handed popped him in the face. Oh, yeah. And then you see an interview later, and then he popped the guy's eardrum.

Right. I mean, he didn't punch him, he was all open, but still he popped the guy's eardrum. Yeah, that guy's hand is the size of your chest. Well, yeah, it's the size of the guy, yeah.

I mean, he smacked him pretty hard. But the same idea. Some guy was interviewing him, started saying something he didn't like, and he just went up. Right.

Yeah, I just don't understand what people think they can get away with. Yeah, it's like, oh, you know what? This is going to be good for ratings. This is good.

There's no way he's going to hit me. I could sue him. Yeah. Do you have a football thing in there today?

Nope. Okay, so speaking of smacking somebody. Oh, DK Mecca. Yeah, the whole DK thing.

You didn't even hit him. I don't think he actually connected. No. But, I mean, you heard why?

No. So, supposedly, this is not the first time DK has had a run-in with this certain fan. Interaction with this individual? Yeah.

And they keep saying that DK, the reason why is because this person called DK by his real name. But then there's other reports that there was a slang term used for DK. Okay. You know.

I'm going to flip this on you here. Yep. Because, like, when you're a man in the arena and you're in the middle of this thing and you have fans that are purposely going out of their way to egg you on and all these things, you cannot engage. Yeah, you can't.

I mean, he was definitely frustrated because of how the game was going. Right. And he wasn't really. Did they win that game?

They won that game. Yeah, the Steelers won. But, I mean, he wasn't really getting thrown in the ball. Gotcha.

Right, so I think he was frustrated in that aspect, and that's probably maybe, because I think this happened like second quarter. Dude, you got a bit like, when you are in the stadium, you know that people are purposely doing everything they can to get a rise out of you, in the same aspect of they know that they're safe, right? " Excuse me. That's just a guy being an asshole, right?

That's just a flat out, right? So, you know, at that point, you have to keep your composure. But if I'm doing a one-on-one interview with somebody, and that person has gone out of their way to try and get some type of click bait or something at my expense, and you're within arm's reach, you really should consider what you're saying. You should have some decency, have a little bit of respect.

I'm coming onto your show for you, right, to help me, like this is supposed to be a double promotion scenario, right? Like, no, that doesn't work. Now, if you're some coal miner or whatever that's having a bad day and you want to yell at a guy who's making multi-millions worth of dollars, at the end of the day, the multi-millionaire should be like, "Yeah, whatever, dude. Mike, Mike, my life is 10X years.

Yeah, but I wouldn't even yell at that guy. Like, he's humongous. He went, yeah. But you, but like, but you're, again, you're hoping that he does some, some sort of response, right?

Because it would suck if he got suspended for that, or something like that. But if you look at it, he didn't hit him. He didn't, it didn't connect. Yeah.

Sports is getting out of hand. In what aspect? With this whole thing with fans to the players or whoever's on the court or on the field or whatever, there's always something happening between a fan and a player. Whether it's after the game, whether it's before the game, or whether it's during the game, there's always something in the news.

They've got to do a better job. The redcoats or whatever people that are out there doing security. I think that's always existed, man. But they've got to do something better.

I don't know. What are you going to do? Because if you remove it, if you remove the engagement completely, you want to know what you're going to do? You're going to hurt your ratings.

Because I got to tell you, there's nothing more frustrating than like athletes totally ignoring kids. I think that's ridiculous. I mean, kids are one thing, but like, let's say like, okay, that interaction where that person was, they were hanging over the side. Right.

Right. If there was a security person there, that guy should be removed. Yeah. Like, hey, man, either you get back up there or you're out of here.

No, I mean, just eject him. Well, yeah, 'cause he was really hanging over. Right, like you're out, like you know that that's wrong. And for that interaction to happen, it's not like DK went up to him because the guy was being nice.

Well, he, but he went over there. Yeah, he went over there 'cause the guy was, or girl, whatever it was, with blue hair, was a problem. So again, so if you had more security or you had somebody there, like, they could have stopped or intervened. Was it in Seattle or in Pittsburgh?

It was in Seattle, right? They had blue hair. Was it in Seattle? No, Detroit.

It was in Detroit. I'm sorry. Seattle played the Rams on Thursday. Yeah, the Rams.

That was a crazy game. Okay. Sorry, Palmer. We went on a rant.

No, I think that you're right. You know, I just don't think that... I don't know. If somebody's out of line, yeah, just eject them.

And again, yes, all this stuff is looking fake, by the way. I've been watching TikTok. Yeah, I've been watching like reels and TikTok and all this stuff, and it's like... I don't even know what to watch anymore, to be honest.

Yeah. Hey, I'm going to do this. This will work. There's fake news stories on TikTok anymore.

You'll be watching TikTok and it'll, you know, some elaborate looking news story looks very professionally made and everything. Right. And then you go and Google it and it goes, there's no record. Yeah, that's not true.

Yeah, there's no record of that man trying to leave the country and blah blah. Yeah, it's like a waste of my time because I had to Google it. Or it's better education for you because then you get to practice your Googling. No, I don't want to do that.

Ooh, fine tuning your Googling. You know, do you think with all this fake AI stuff on TikTok, you think people go back to the regular news? I think that it's, I think that it hurts it. Yeah.

I think that it hurts it. Yeah. That you lose, you start, you, believe me, you're going to fast forward in six months and you're going to hear, you know. TikTok shutting down.

Well, what, no, not shutting down, but viewers are, are gravitating off of social, specific social media platforms because of too much AI. Yeah. Too much fake stuff. Yeah, it's too much.

Because, you know, the first couple AIs, I didn't realize they were AIs. And I felt really dumb once I explained, like, I just saw this thing, it was crazy, and they're like, yeah, that was fake, I'm like, oh. Oh, I've been dude many times by sports stories. But now, at this point, I look at everything, and I'm like, that's fake, that's fake, that's fake.

Right, now you're a little more, I can't think of the word. You're a little cognizant. Maybe that's it. Yeah, you look at everything differently now.

You're sort of jaded, and you think, I don't think that dog just saved that lady from a mountain lion. Somebody asked one of our videos if it was AI. Is this AI? I'm like, no.

All the stunts that are performed here at Cigar Hustlers Podcast are real. Somebody asked a question about one of our clips, like, is this AI? Well, yes, it is. We have all sorts of technology here.

Oh. Look, we can barely put the show together. Yeah, we're broke. Do you think we have an AI video now?

We're broke, fellas and ladies. Right. All right, now on with some cigar news. Michael.

All right. Cigar news, Michael. Cigar news. Cigar news.

Cigar news. Okay. First off, Cigar Press released their next five cigars they have listed for Cigars of the Year. And Postana San Andreas is on number 6.

Oh! The Robusto! I saw this. We have scored.

We are in the top 10. We almost cracked the top 5. That's right, Coop. I mean, people.

Michael, you have a comment? Yeah. You know, shout out to Fred Ruin Cigar Press. Right.

You know, it's always a great feeling to get acknowledged. And I think that we don't get acknowledged a lot. No. It's because some people don't like us or we just don't make them comfortable.

We don't make them warm and fuzzy inside. And we don't play by the rules, I guess, or the guidelines that are suggested in this industry. And when you get past that and you realize who we are and that we're actually really good dudes and that we're in this for the greater good of the industry, you give us a chance, right? And if you give us a chance, I think that you're going to love what we have and what we have to offer.

I mean, I think Powstanie is one of the greatest cigars out there in market. I know because I smoke it every day. I smoke three or four of them, the different blends, every day. And I wouldn't if I thought that they were bad, you know?

So, shout out to Fred. Fred, thank you so much for the support. Thor, thank you very much. It's an honor to be on Cigar Press.

And, yeah, it's great to see the first one. They're the first one this year to acknowledge any of our brands, so hope they're not the last. Very well said. I'm glad I didn't interrupt you at all.

Thanks. Yeah, me either. So I thought it was a great number. And I thought it was perfectly put, exactly where it was, number six.

It was good. I haven't seen one through five yet, though. No, like most places, he's releasing them in groups. Look, I'm happy with the nod, man.

I'm happy with the nod. Yeah, just to show up on a list, yeah, that's awesome, yeah, I mean, to me, it should be number one, you know, yeah, I mean, regardless of a number, right, we should be on every list, I agree, right, because one is a good cigar, and when you see some of these other cigars, like, you know, I've seen the Cigar Aficionado one, it's like, what in the hell are you guys smoking, or you're probably not smoking them, that's really honestly how this list is probably working out here, yeah, I mean, it's hard to say, you know, you've got, He's got great tobacco, great taste, great everything. I agree. Thank you, Pete.

The aficionado, it seems like there's no rhyme or reason why, even when they explain how their voting works, you still don't. It looks like the same list from last year, to be honest. A lot of it is. And they always have Cubans on, why do they even think, Cubans should have their own list.

Right. It's not even something readily available to everybody. It's the same story every year, buddy. Yeah, yeah.

You know what's crazy is that every year, less and less people care about aficionados top 25. That is true. That's the wild part. Right.

" I haven't had anybody ask for the new, that Padron 60th. Nobody. And we have a lot of Padron customers. It's true, we do.

" Not a single person asked. No. So. Yeah, I wouldn't buy that anyways.

I would. I would try it. I've tried it. No, I've tried it at 60th.

Yeah? Oh, where'd you get it? We don't carry it. I don't know where I got it from, to be honest.

I've tried it, though. I think I got it from Tara. Someone must have brought it at his Christmas party. Yeah, probably.

Yeah. At the Christmas party. I'm surprised you didn't get ruined with the baby oil. Why would you buy the 60th when you could just buy the 50th?

Well, it's 10 years better. It's pointier. I love the 50th. It's easy math right there.

Right? It's 10 years. Oh, yeah. All right, before the end of the year, we'll be looking at all the major lists, and now we have decided we're going We're going to rate the raters.

We are. We are going to build a list of all of the top 25 or top 10 guys that we come across. Right. And then we are going to determine who we think did the best job this year.

And the worst job people are going to be berated. Sure. Yes. Why not?

Why do we care at this point? Nobody likes us. What difference does it make? No, but you know what?

Here's the difference. I'm looking at someone and say, dude, your list is terrible. Yeah, sure. I thought, and here's why.

And then I could pick apart every single cigar that I thought was bad and what was wrong with it and why I shouldn't have made a list. It was terrible. And if that upsets you, then are you really striving to get better in this industry? No.

You know, that's just my opinion. You can disagree with everything that I say, but I'm going to give you my input whether you want to hear it or not. It's a great opinion. Well, it's a great thing about having our own show.

We can give them our opinions whether they win it or not. Yes. And you will hear us. Well, I have the microphone, and you don't.

So you will listen to every word I have to say. Five days a week. Five days a week. We can say it five times if we want to.

You do that one show a week, and then we have the five. Yeah, but we have clips all seven days, so ha-ha. We have 70,000 clips. We're still clipping from three weeks ago, I think.

I'm inundating you with clips. We will outwork you. YouTube just gave up and go, just throw it up anywhere, I don't care anymore. Just put it in a spot.

Put it up, let somebody see it. Give them their buy-in. Fierro Teigo Celebrations debuts at world famous cigar bar. He was down here?

Apparently. Son of a... Well, the cigar is, we don't know if he was. Ah.

Fierro Teigo has released its first batch of a new line called Celebrations. That is making his debut in celebration on the 30th anniversary of world-famous cigar bar in Fort Myers in Cape Coral, Florida. It's a 7x50 Vitola that Michael Herklots of Fierotego described as a "Diadema Perfecto". It's a size that has previously been used for limited edition event releases of the company's Timeless 1930 and Sterling Lines.

As for the blend, Herklots is keeping it under wraps. Sh, can't say. It's a secret. But he did say that it is completely new.

Still can't say. It's a new secret. He added that the Vitola deliberately evokes change and development with each puff, creating a profound, complex, and compelling experience. You know what I like about him?

He answers his own social media. Yeah. Not really answers, but if I comment something kind of silly, he will say something. Right.

And you can tell it's him. It's not somebody else. Right. Well, if you want to message me, I'll answer.

Quisada is producing. Not even engaging on that one. Quesada is producing the cigars. I'm available.

I'm available. Somebody send me a message. I'm available. I will send you back bing bong.

Bing bong. Bing bong. I like how the crowd randomly yelled bing bong at us. Bing bong.

Bing bong. Bing bong. Quesada is producing cigars at Tabaco de Porción Tabadex factory in the Dominican Republic. The cigars are debuting a world famous cigar bar and come dressed with bands and boxes that commemorate the store's upcoming 30th anniversary in 2026.

26. So maybe he's not been here yet. Celebrating the years-long relationship and support between retailer and Fierro Tego, they have always been great partners, and this was an opportunity to celebrate that, Herklots told Half Wheel. Pricing is at $300 for a box of 10, 250 boxes made for World Famous.

The cigars are available both in-store and via phone. Oh, no online. Herklots said that Fierro Tego celebrations will be formally introduced in 2026, and offered only in the And offered only at the company's most supportive partners and during our most special event. Wait, so he's made it for them, but you can get it too?

Maybe. Is that the way that just sounded? In 2026. And offered only at the company's most supportive partners.

Yeah, so it's not an exclusive. It's actually smart. So what he did was he released it to a store specifically. Right.

And he gives it kind of a wave and an introduction, gives them first kind of right to the exposure of that cigar. But eventually what happens is, excuse me, you've kind of saturated your consumers from that vicinity, and then you go back and you spread it across your other consumers, your other retailers. Sprinkle it out to your most supportive partners. Yeah, and then those retailers then will do the same thing.

They will promote it to their consumers. To their peoples. Does World Famous have an online? No, they have a phone number.

Oh, okay. By phone. Yeah. So that's good then.

Bocock Brothers releases Syracuse Bandit Cigar Line. The Bococ Boys are at it again. Bococ Brothers has added another college-themed cigar to its portfolio as the company has released the Syracuse Special Edition Corojo. Dominating the colleges.

Bococ on the time. That's where how pretty girls are. The blend features a Honduran Corojo. That's very creepy.

The blend features a Honduran Corojo wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder, in a combination of Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. The company has not yet confirmed the size of this cigar, but appears to be maybe a 6x52 Torojo. It's a color size that has been used through the company's Collegiate Series. Or whatever size you guys like.

It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. It honestly doesn't matter. No.

It's a brilliant marketing ploy. Right. You know, they're covering a place that no one in the cigar industry has done before. They're aiming specifically at cigar college markets.

And guess what? If you're alumni of Syracuse, you're going to buy the cigar. You want the cigar. Yes, we love the Bukakis.

We love the Bukakis. We love the Bocock. What's in it? Who cares?

It says my... It says Syracuse. It's got my brand. It's got my college.

Right. It's Bucke. It works. It's not Bucke.

Yeah, that's weird. 50 a cigar. 50? Or is it $14?

Eh, it works out to about... Somewhere around. Bocock Brothers Collegiate Series also includes branded cigars for... I didn't realize they'd done all these colleges.

Yeah. Wake Forest. Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Louisiana State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Florida. No, no, I'm sorry, R&R's working on that.

Those are big, big schools. Well, the company has not yet confirmed where the Syracuse Special Edition Crowhoe is being made. It has previously said that it produces its cigars at an undisclosed factory. There you go.

It doesn't matter. It same doesn't matter. The factory is, it doesn't matter, you know, and that's brilliant. That's brilliant.

We actually roll these in the research and development department at Alabama. Dude, these guys are gonna build a big, not a big, but a good book of business, just by focusing on these college. And you know what? I don't hate them for it.

I think it's a great idea. It's a great idea. I thought the younger people were, like, against cigar smoking. But this is for the alumni.

Yeah, you know, like, it doesn't matter. The old rich guys that used to go to school, they're the donate a bunch of money. Any way that you can figure out to penetrate a new market, to expose people to cigars, is a good thing for this industry. So, look, I don't care if it's toilet paper wrapped up with a band on it, and they're calling it, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

As long as it says Syracuse on it. Yeah. Yeah. We'd like to announce a Powstanie P for Pittsburgh University.

Pittsburgh? That's interesting. P, Pittsburgh? No, you gotta go, you gotta go, uh...

Phoenix? No, no, you gotta go... Philadelphia? Ivy League.

What Ivy League college starts with a P? Princeton? Princeton. Oh, there we go.

Or Harvard and... Harvard starts with an H, it won't work. Give me all those. We start with a P.

Y and H are a little far away from P's. No, no, I wanna focus on markets where people are so anti-any of it, and I wanna go in there and change their minds. Well, they're not kinda like the Polish people, they're old white guys. There are a lot of Polacks that go to Princeton, or Yale, or-- He drops the races, but I'm the Polacks.

I am Pol- I'm Polish, too. So that makes it okay, then? Yeah. You're known as German.

Yeah, come on, we know the rules. Adolf, you're German over there. We know the rules. You know the rules?

I don't tie mine. We know the rules. You can insult yourself. You can insult your own people.

There you go. Then it's okay. Fonseca du Nord ur Canada. What was that?

Oh, that was racist. It's Fonseca, D-U, Du, Nord, N-O-R-D, Er, E-R, Canada. We need to get John McTavish on the phone. I imagine it's some type of French or something.

Yeah, obviously. Slated for early 2026, a new addition, regional release from the Cuban-made Fonseca brand is slated to arrive in Canada in early 2026. It's called the Fonseca du Nord, a Robusto Extra measuring five and a half by 52. It's called Genos in a Cuban Cigar World.

Is that Generous? G-E-N-I-O-S, Spanish for Generous? I guess. Makes sense.

The same Vitola as the Cohiba, whatever, the H Upman Connoisseur A, and the handful of other additional regional releases. Production is limited to 6,000 boxes of 10 cigars for a total run of 60,000 cigars. Ooh, we can count. Pricing has not yet been announced, but the cigars are scheduled to be on retail shelves in February.

They just don't have any pricing. We're just waiting to see if prices go up on all those cigars. According to it, right, you see what happens after the first of the year, then we'll decide. You don't know tariffs and all this other stuff.

I mean, maybe they're making them at the Altidus factory and they can't get them. Or? Allegedly. Maybe they're made in Canada.

Chain Z has shut it down. According to a source familiar with the release, while images of the cigars and their standard banding have been released, they will be required to comply with Canada's plain packaging standards and they will arrive at retailers in dull, nondescript boxes. And take the fun right out of all of it. There will be the 11th edition regional release for Canada and the first in approximately seven and a half years.

Took a long time to make these. Mm-hmm. And there's a list of all the other ones they've made. Blahdi, blahdi, blahdi, blahdi, blah.

Blahdi, blahdi, blahdi. The Fonseca brand is not one often used for edition regional releases. In fact, this will be the third time it has been selected since the program began in 2005. All right, you guys ready?

Okay. This is the last one for the year. Is it? Yes.

You mean last one with two cigars? This is the last full game. Tomorrow you're interviewing Santa Claus. Oh, this is the last full game.

Tomorrow you're interviewing Santa Claus. Oh, okay. What, Santa Claus doesn't smoke cigars? Yes, but he doesn't play What's the Score?

Why not? Here, there's a story here about a cigar we're not doing. I'm going to see. I'm going to wish for this.

You're going to what? Wish for Santa Claus to play What's the Score? Why don't you do one up for Santa to play? I'm going to write a I'm going to write a letter to them.

Write a letter to Santa? Yes. You better send it to Express if you want him to get it by tomorrow. It's magic.

It doesn't have to. You can just throw it in the mailbox. It'll arrive. Right.

Better hurry and get it done then. Now the last, what's the score for 2025? What's the score? I can even get it right now.

Cigar number one is from December 22nd, 2025. Brooks Whittington Cigars, Dominican Republic, General Cigar Company, limited edition. This is a redux. It's already been reviewed once, but we didn't do it.

The CAO Arcana Thundersmoke. Oh. We have smoked it on the show. I don't think we gave it a good review, do we?

Do you want to go first? You want me to go first on this one? I'll go first. Okay.

65. 86. 99, original release date September 2024, the only smoked one cigar because it's a Redux. I'm not going to tell you the original score either, I thought that would give too much of it away, but I do have it.

Boots? 70. 86. Clue number one.

The cigar delivers a rich and involving flavor profile, highlighted by strong espresso, creamy oak, raisin, raisin sweetness, and later... Sawdust? What? Sawdust?

No. Transitions into coffee, beans, and charred meat, maintaining full flavor throughout the smoke. Boots? Um...

Sounds like he likes it. 75. 87. Despite a massive band covering most of the cigar, the rapper shows appealing character with a dark, mottled brown color, toothy texture, and complex pre-light aromas that include barnyard cedar, spices, and raisin sweetness, all of which carried nicely into the cold-draw retro hail.

It's the holiday season. 82. Ooh, big jump. Ooh, big jump for you.

Um, I'm feeling good at 87. Clue number three, construction is inconsistent with early burn issues requiring multiple touch-ups and a reoccurring need for correction in the final third along with an occasional metallic note replacing the more pleasant floral nuances from the first half. 82. 85.

Final thought, construction is inconsistent with early burn issues requiring multiple touch-ups and a reoccurring need for correction in the final third along with an occasional metallic note replacing the more pleasant floral nuances from the first half. That's a thought. Considering where some of the tobacco is used and the blend is grown, I remain a bit surprised at how few overly unique flavors there are in this profile. Having said that, the profile is enjoyable, especially the first half, which features a combination of creamy oak and charred meat in the top spots.

In addition, while the overall construction was a bit better, it still had to keep my lighter handy throughout the two-hour smoking time. After a year of rest, the cigar is now a better smoke than it was when it was first released, and has involved enough for the cigar. Do you have to make it one of the standout releases in the Arcana lineup so far? Mmm.

You say the word outstanding? Uh, in these cigars, it is the best of the worst cigars. In the world of the cigar, not all cigars. One cigar truly stands out above the others.

In the world of CAO, this cigar is king. And who's the, who's the raider? Brooks. You should be paying attention.

You should be paying attention. I know they're playing with your lighter. It's gonna be an 87. This is an 80s, though.

He rates all his stuff high. Michael, you cheated, didn't he? No, I didn't cheat. He would have had to have seen it this morning, it went up this morning.

I don't ever go on their website. You can't spell happy. Oh, God. I thought this one was going to be easy, and then he just did that to me.

Well, I'm not going to tie him. I'm going to go 88. Okay, the original review scored an 85. Okay.

This one scored an 87. Yes! He cheated. I did not cheat.

That's the first one I ever nailed. He cheated. No. I knew it was an 87.

I just couldn't stay at the same number. How would you know it's 87? Because he cheated. He read it too.

I felt it. I felt it in my bones. I just was like, he always reads everything. It sounded great, but then horrible.

Take his phone away. I'm not even on my phone. Well, I tried to do two positive, one negative. It's negative.

I mean, there's no other way to do it. I can't just do it the way it is because they don't give all bad or all good comments. The only thing I did on my phone is I messaged Julian Gordon. Tell me quick, what's the Thundersmoke rating?

No, I didn't. That's what he texted Julian Gordon. I sent him a picture of us podcasting. Send him a picture of his dick.

Hey, Julian. Here's my dick. Send me a picture. Tell me what the score is.

Wow, it went dark. Why are you so aggressive over there? I like aggressive Palmer. He's super aggressive.

Alright, this is the second cigar. May 6, 2011. Charlie Monado. Oh boy.

92. He should've went first. It's a Pinar Del Rio 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Maduro Lancero. It's a wine cigar?

Nope, it had the longest name I could find of any cigar. Pinar Del Rio 1878. Cubano Especial Capa Maduro Lancero. Capa Maduro Lancero.

Romaduro, Lanzero. This one is so old, the review is written different. It took me a little longer to do. 86.

Like, where's my standard information? When did they start reviewing cigars? 2005. Is that what it was?

Something like that. Okay. This one was not tagged with their other name, so this was one of the original half-wheelies, I think. 86.

86 from the man over there. All right, 85. 55. 55?

Yes. $80. This one, it spent 13 months in his humidor. He used a Zykar cutter.

He used a Colibri Boss 2 lighter. Oh, wow. He drank a Coke. Smoking time was one hour and 40 minutes.

What was he watching on TV? That's the only thing he doesn't list. I had a hard time finding the score. We're never going to know.

I feel like he watches Animal Planet. Animal Planet? You think it's a lot of Animal Planet? He's a big soccer guy.

85. Oh, I can see that. 85. 85.

That's where I was. I don't care. I didn't listen to you. Now I'm not doing anything that you say.

You both said 85? 85. Wow. Clue number one.

The cigar shows a surprising and impressive recovery in the second third, delivering a consistent and enjoyable profile of oak, herb, cocoa, and moderate spice with a lengthy, full-bodied finish. 86. 85. Oh, brain hurt.

Clue number two, visually, the thick pigtail and dark Brazilian adaparaca rapper paired with the black bands create a bold striking presentation and when on point, the cigar offers artesian style characters with respectable strength in the medium to medium full range. 86. Mr. Booty?

God, he's talking about this cigar like it's the best cigar ever. This is 2011, it may have been. Yeah, it was a happier time for him. This is a young, uh, yet to be stricken down by the industry.

Yeah, young spry Charlie. Yes. He was stricken down. Back when he had short hair.

Back when he had short hair. He had spikes? Yeah. Spikes?

He was Yakuza at that point. He was Yakuza? Oh, that makes sense. He had his body tattoo completely coming?

Yeah. It was like the end of Dragon Ball Z. Yeah. Right.

He had just gone... Rook! Super Saiyan. Super Saiyan Minato.

87. Clue number three. Flavor consistency is a major issue, as multiple samples suffered from harsh, foul pine and rotting wood notes. Rotting wood.

One so bad, it had to be put down early, while the final third becomes dull and collapsed in complexity, Undermining the overall experience. Is this the final one? There's one more paragraph, but they weren't called "Final Thoughts" back there, it was called "In The End". "In The End".

So I'm using that as the final thought? "In The End", 82. "Rotting Wood"? "Rotting Wood", 82.

"Rotting Wood" and something about the pine being bad. "Rotting Wood". "Moldy Wood". "Rook".

"82. What are you going to do? "85". If we whisper, can only he hear us in the headphones.

He's cooked. Got him. I got him. Did you hear that, Boots?

Yeah, I heard. Yeah, he's got headphones on. Well, that was the question, if we whisper, because Mikey couldn't hear me, but only you could. Oh, yeah, so say the number.

Well, I don't have headphones on. In the end, now that you've experienced your first El Nino Diablo PSA in a while, some parting thoughts on the PDR. I haven't had any, I haven't had any, in any of the other Vitolas, but in a couple of conclusions, A, the Lancero Vitola might not be a good idea for this blend, B, these don't seem to age well, they were marked as medium and as outreach to the value price, uh, would jump out to the value price market, neither of which explain the cigar. I like Brazilian rappers of both varieties.

I like Lanceros. I like cigars that don't try to be too much in terms of strength. Unfortunately, I don't like this. Limited vocabulary for Charlie Manon.

Yeah. I don't like? I don't like. Charlie no like Vitola.

I like Lancero. I no like this Lancero. Charlie no like Lancero. I like Brazilian Araparaca.

I no like this Araparaca. Probably when he first wrote it, it was probably way worse than that. I can't wait till I know more words. " You can't wait to my creative writing class, Steve.

I cut with Colibri cutter. All right, is that it? Yes, sorry, it's hard to tell, but yes, but he has, he gives the score and then there's comments after the score, so it's not like the other ones where you read it and then there's a score. Yeah, so you read it, the score is in a paragraph, I had to find it, and then there's an explanation of the score.

880. Whatcha gonna do, Booty? Whatcha gonna do when Charlie comes looking for you? Haruk!

Mikey has to hit it on the head to beat me today. So I'm gonna go 79. Okay, so hold on. No!

You already said your number! That's fine, that's fine. I'm going to, I'm going, that's fine. I'm gonna tell you, I think he won.

Because I think it's gonna go lower than that. Oh, yeah. It's a 66. Yes.

The second third is the only part that piqued my interest and I'm indifferent to whether it's worth the small price of admission. That was, he has never changed the way that he rates a cigar or how he talks about it. I mean, I guess like he's used more elaborate words. More words.

Yeah, I guess. I drank a Coke. I drank a Coke. He's still saying the raisin, nutty, blah, blah, blah.

I had a Coke. Now, Rodney Wood, I don't even know how that would smell. I got my boardroom shirt on today. Yes, why is that important?

Because I like boardroom. I heard you on the phone earlier, right before you came in here saying, oh, maybe you were just talking to him. I heard something you were saying, I'm going to wear it on the podcast today. No, I was just talking about apparel in general.

I don't like if, you know, sometimes I'll wear a shirt that somebody gave me to give them a shout-out. Yeah, me as well. So you don't, you're not, you don't even have a camera. I'll take a picture and put it on the internet.

He likes to take a picture. Funny, most of them are, as he's changing though, it's weird. I'm gonna get, he sort of holds his shirt up as he's not buying anything nice for his wife because she doesn't like anything. She doesn't like any girl's stuff apparently.

What does she like? Just curious. She told me for her Christmas present, she wanted the house painted and our dog tore up our couches, so she wants the couches fixed. The couches fixed, not new couches.

No, no, she wants them, she really likes the couches, so she just wants them fixed. So are you gonna get, are you gonna, what are you doing for Christmas? Are you gonna paint the house? The painting part you think would be easy.

I mean, I'm not painting the house, but yeah, the house will be painted. Okay. All right, fellas, come on over on Christmas Day, I need all of you at the house. El Vieta House.

Yeah. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. We're painting!

Yay! Right, right. Christmas bonus, everybody gets to help. Everybody, grab a roller.

All right, this is episode 435. Is it? Yep. All right.

Please join us on the Patreon. Yes, we're on the Patreon. Join us on the Patreon. All right, bye-bye, thank you.

Thank you, bye-bye. Merry Christmas. Good-bye. com, the churelli comes in black, bold, clean, and built for battle, available in multiple sizes for warriors of every shape and strength, and remember, the actual image does not dance or move, but it definitely makes a statement.

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Show Notes

Robotaxi has a problem no one considered, How did Hallmark go from Cards to Christmas Movies, We have the Christmas movie everyone has wanted to see and then in cigar new ferro Tego has a celebrationione ,  Bocock is at it again and finally fonseco Norde is headed nothing then a season ending What’s The Score?